Amusement devices utilizing tires and rings carried internally of the tire have been known in the past and are best exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,443 issued to Ralph Aguilar on Apr. 20, 1971. In this device a combination of a ring and a tire is utilized in which an individual is seated on and holds on to an inner ring. It will be appreciated that in the above mentioned patent, the size of the ring is concomitant with the size of an individual in a seated position and that there is no stablizing means shown for preventing back and forth oscillatory movement. Nor is there any means shown in which the individual can readily change the direction of travel of the device. Thus the device is an amusement device in the sense that the individual can exercise very little if any control over the device and in general the individual goes where the device takes him.
Instability of this type of device centers about the fact that the center of gravity of the individual may be above the center of gravity of the structure in which the individual is situated. Moreover, rolling backwards and forwards is not prevented by the amusement device depicted in the aforementioned patent.
Other amusement devices which include either motorized or unmotorized rings or spheres are illustrated in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,826,488 issued to Edwin A. Hall, Jr. on July 30, 1974; 3,905,617 issued to Henry Tabb Smith on Sept. 16, 1975; 1,673,774 issued to A. More on June 12, 1928; 1,625,327 issued to A. More on Apr. 19, 1927; 3,260,324 issued to C. R. Suarez on July 12, 1966; 3,622,179 issued to Winifred C. Pfersick on Nov. 23, 1971; 3,420,545 issued to P. E. Dittman on Jan. 7, 1969; 3,338,593 issued to F. W. Gehring on Aug. 29, 1967; 3,746,117 issued to Ray Allred on July 17, 1973; and, 2,953,394 issued to G. E. Anderson on Sept. 20, 1960.
It will be appreciated that in none of the patents is a pivotable platform with a stabilizer extension shown or illustrated. Nor is a structure with an inner and outer ring configured such that the center of gravity of the individual is well below the center of gravity of the combination.
As mentioned before, one of the major problems of all of the prior devices described in the aforementioned patents is stability and the maintaining of the center of gravity of the individual well below the center of gravity of the amusement device.
Moreover, in order to turn or steer such devices a considerable turning moment must be applied by the twisting of the body of the individual utilizing the amusement device.
It will be appreciated that in down hill skiing a twisting moment is imparted to the skis by virtue of an original downward thrust which increases frictional contact with the ground followed by an unweighting of the ends of the skis, followed by a downward thrust. This latter downward thrust is usually to one side or the other in order to change the direction of travel. In the prior art devices cited above there is no ability to establish an initial twisting motion by virtue of any extended frictional contact with the earth such that the turning of these devices whether or not effectuated through momentum exchange is difficult without a base from which to exert the momentum exchange force. Nor is a liftable or unweightable tail or extension shown which would approximate the feel of turning a ski.